


It Was Only Seven Days

by orphan_account



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen, Possible Gon Freecs / Killua Zoldyck, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 06:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3885076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was only seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours. When you compared the meager amount of hours to all the time in Killua’s seventeen years, it was really nothing. </p>
<p>But, those seven days were not a simple a sum, a conglomeration, a dutiful ticking of the time. They had been new, full, amazingly bursting with the sweetest pleasures and smiles he had never known.  </p>
<p>They had been brighter than all his cold dark seventeen years.</p>
<p>Seven days in which Killua Zoldyck accidentally shared a hotel room with one Gon Freecs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Was Only Seven Days

“I’m very sorry sir, but all the rooms are taken up.”

“Taken up?” Killua parroted in disbelief, eyes wide and brows canted sharply. He could see her swallow nervously, and so he tried his best to smile benignly. “What do you mean they’re all taken up? I reserved a room a week ago!” He splayed his fingertips, palms up, in the air.

She eyes his hands, before flickering her gaze back to his. “We have a trainee employee, and he mistakenly handed out your room.” She hesitated. “We have a two bed room with only one occupant...there won’t be any other hotel open either. Tomorrow is the start of the annual festival.”

He raked his fingers through his unruly hair, digging a canine into his tongue to hold himself back from lashing out at her. It wasn’t her fault, and he knew of the festival. It was why he was in town in the first place, though his intentions certainly were not as jovial as participating in the shing-ding.

He licked his lips nervously. He couldn’t abandon this job, and the assignment required that he wait until the last day of the festival before completing his mission. Some political, dramatical, power struggle or other. Killua really couldn’t care less, aside from his utter refusal to sleep out in the open. There was no way he was camping out in the dead of summer for a week. “You said there was an empty bed?”

“Um, yes! Would you like me to contact the room-holder? It would be completely free on your part, of course. We’ll refund the initial payment you made.”

Killua didn’t give two shits about the money. It was about sharing the room. It itched under his skin, to be forced to share living space with someone else, who could be a nasty piece of work. Nonetheless, the desperate assassin nodded, and the frayed woman quickly dialed, trembling fingers clutching the handheld phone.

“Good evening, Mr. Freecs. How are your accommodations?”

Killua kept half an ear on the conversation, focusing his gaze on his hands. What would he be doing all week, he wondered. Go to the festival? The teen couldn’t recall if he had ever been to one. Most likely it wasn’t a fault of memory but rather a fault in his dysfunctional family. As if he’d ever been taken to one.

“Mr. Zoldyck? Mr. Freecs said he did not mind sharing his room.” And, then, “He’s a Hunter, and he tends to stay out of his room for most of the day. He’s around your age,” and before she could continue to try and comfort him, Killua snagged the key from her outstretched hand, lifted the long bag he had, and made his way to the room. Damn, what a pain this assignment was turning about to be.

‘Key’ was misleading when it was really just a slip of plastic with the bolded words RM 508 embossed on one side. He slipped into the elevator, grimacing when he found it occupied.

It was another teen, tank baring muscled arms and pants crudely cuffed at his calves. Killua skunked into a corner, thumbing the fifth button as he went.

“Are you Killua?”

Shocked at being addressed, he turned, finding intense brown eyes on his. “Who are you?” The assassin shot back, back stiffening, fingers curling tighter around the plastic card.

The boy-really, a teen, but that was just being particular- grinned exuberantly, skin sun-kissed and beaming. “I’m Gon! You’re sharing my room.” He stuck out a square hand. “It’s nice to meet you!”

Not willing to cause unnecessary troubles for himself, Killua gripped the offered member, smiling placidly. “Likewise.” The touch was warm against his chilled pale hands, and Killua quickly retracted his fingers.

“I was coming down to get you! Are you here for the festival? Most people are, and I guess I sorta am too.” Gon unnecessarily elaborated, drawing a short sigh from Killua. It had been too much to hope his new roommate would leave him alone.

“Look here Gon,” Killua began, finally turning to face the Hunter beside him. “I’m not here to make friends. I have a job to do, and you’re just being annoying.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Gon sheepishly replied, a crooked smile on his lips. “They always tell me I bother people too much! But, since we’ll be roommates for the week, we should be friends! I know the best food places in town!”

Well, then. That certainly changed things. Killua thought carefully, before slowly conceding, a shiver shaking from the tips of his toes to his fingertips, dusting his cheeks softly with pink. It felt like the hesitant touch you made at the beginning of summer, toe skimming the surface of water, still afraid it might just be too cold.

“Then...sure. But if I don’t like it you get to cover the bill!”

“In what way does that make sense!” Gon shot back, shocking Killua slightly with the lack of discord in his voice. It sounded rather humorous. “Then, if Killua likes it, then Killua will pay the bill!”

The assassin grinned. “Better kiss your wallet good-bye. I’m very picky.”

“Killua didn’t mention that before!”

“Too late,” Killua said, a smile curving his lips and shaping his eyes off into crescents, too gentle to be a smirk and too pleasant to be a grin. “Ah, we’re here. Well, lead the way.” The elevator shuddered, the gut-settling sensation unremarkable in that Killua was quite used to it.

“Okay!” Grasping Killua’s luggage and tugging it away before the assassin could react, Gon meandered down the wooden hallway, peacefully quiet for once.

Now that the distance to the room was becoming shorter, Killua grimaced with anxiety. He really wasn’t used to sharing spaces. When you lived in a mansion on a mountain, there wasn’t a lack of elbow space. His grimace deepened when Gon roughly shoved open their door, fumbling with bags and keycards and handles before sweeping it wide and gesturing Killua in. As the assassin walked in, he refused to ponder the implications of two grown men sharing a hotel room for an extended period of time, instead adjusting his eyes quickly from the warm lighting in the hallway to the brightness of the room.

The room was a moderately sized one, not too cozy but not as overtly spacious as Killua would have liked. There were two queen beds, a tv, some drawers, a restroom, and a balcony. Gon set his bag on the foot of the bed.

“I already have the other bed.”

“Um, well thanks. For letting me stay, you know.” Killua grimaced as the fell awkwardly into the space between them, but Gon quickly continued.

“I’m using this drawer, but if you need more space, I can move my stuff!”

“I, uh, should be good. Yea.” Killua frowned. “Why do you have two beds? Why didn’t you just get one bed?”

“I just asked for whatever they had, and this is what was left. I only got here a few days ago too, though I visited this town once before!”

“Well,” and then Killua did not know what he meant by well, so he lightly swung his bag onto the bed, its soft thump going unnoticed as he felt more sincerely the impact of sharing a room. “Do we need to arrange a schedule or…?” He sat gently onto the bed, fingertips grazing the bedsheets.

Gon looked at him strangely before barking a laugh that was not unkind in its nature, short and humorous. “I wake up early, I like to train, and then I go out for the day. I fall asleep around 10 or 11. And Killua?”

“I wake up early too, and thats about it. Schedules aren’t my kinda of thing.”

“Okay!” The hunter said simply, and Killua sighed with a sort of apprehension that was foreign to him. Suddenly, he was very tired, and so he shoved the keycard into his pocket and retrieved his jacket from his bag.

“I’m going out,” Killua said.

“See you later!” Gon replied kindly.

 

* * *

 

The phone call to Illumi was one Killua wished he could have avoided but feared the consequences of doing so-- them being Illumi hunting him down.

Of course, one missed phone call wasn’t enough to call down Bloodlust Incarnate from wherever he was, but it was enough to guarantee the next phone call would be longer than necessary, and long story short Killua wanted to avoid talking to Illumi as much as possible.

“ _Killu_?” Illumi answered on the first ring, like always. Phone calls with Illumi were disturbing in that there was never any white noise or background sound to fill in, just the intoxicating and hypnotic voice that haunted Killua’s dreams.

“I’m stationed in the town. I’m currently sharing a hotel room with a Hunter.” The words came out short and clipped. Illumi didn’t need to know who said Hunter was. Gon seemed like a nice person, and if anything Killua didn’t like harming innocent people.

_“Why are you sharing a room with a Hunter?”_

“There’s that seven-day festival going on, so all the hotels are booked.”

_“You could have slept outside.”_

“Are you kidding me? No way am I laying on some hard ass dirt when there’s a perfectly open bed for me to sleep on.” Just the thought of sleeping with bugs had Killua’s lip curling.

_“Very well. I’ll look into whether or not this Hunter will impede your mission.”_

Illumi’s words sent a wild panic into Killua. “No, he’s not! He already told me he’s been here as the bodyguard of some Sandaime.” He lied.

“ _Hm_ ,” and Killua could see Illumi blankly staring. “ _Then, Killu, report if there are any issues or once you’ve completed your mission.”_

“Yes,” Killua nearly growled, hating the obedience. He thumbed the call button, ending the connection and sighing with relief. Illumi was insanely jealous with anyone the elder assassin considered Killua was too close to. The humid night air was unfamiliar to him, and he knew when he woke up tomorrow his already unruly hair would be even unrulier, curling and sticking up in odd directions. _Like that Hunter’s_ , whose name he couldn’t recall. Had he even heard it?

Not wanting to be rude later on, Killua _hmm_ -ed and _uuuh_ -ed, sounding out letters until he thought he found one that would trigger a memory. Suddenly the image arose of the Hunter, his too white grin and too tan skin with his too close hand stretched out towards Killua, his voice echoing in the elevator.

_Gon_ , it was.

He turned back towards the hotel, nimbly making his way down the hill he’d been on, the beginning suburbs of the town’s lights a stone’s throw away. Killua liked the little risks, the small gambles that made his cold lonely missions that bit more exciting. He didn’t _want_ to be like Illumi, who cared only for the black words imprinted on little screens from their father, or like Kalluto, who was cold cold cold, seemingly unafraid to use words to hurt others.

They had grown nicely into the mold their Zoldyck generation had been born into, fitting snug and neat while Killua tried his best to probe little fingers and toes through the cracks of his casing. He didn’t want to be another name on their family tree, unremarkable in his obedience, diligence, and skill ( _though he wasn’t going to lie, his father and grandfather had assured him well enough that he was remarkable skilled. They averred that, in the instance of his abilities, he would go down in stories and legend. But that wasn’t the point._ )

However he was coward. One too afraid of his big brother to strike out on his own. He’d tried, once or twice, but all that had resulted in was Illumi’s vacant eyes scouring him head to toe, his silent words and intangible hands ghosting over his skin and into his heart.

Killua shuddered, shouldering his way through the crowds to get back to the hotel.

Yes, small risks and little gambles were all that Killua could afford.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! Thanks for reading so far. I'm relatively new to the Hunter x Hunter fandom (I've watched 4 seasons and half of the 5th one of the 2011 anime and read 20 chapters into the manga) so my characterization of Killua/Gon/other characters might be off a bit. As I work my way through the entire anime/manga, I'll hopefully improve. Character studies are my most favorite thing to do!
> 
> Please let me know if I'm being OOC or if there are any mistakes. Thanks in advance!


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